Address: Special Conference in Poland on the Religious Factor and the Future of
Europe

Cardinal Tarcisio BertoneSecretary of State

Genuine religious freedom alone is a guarantee of
peace

On Saturday morning, 15 September [2007], during his
visit to Poland and on the occasion of the Seventh International
Conference taking place in Krakow, Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, Secretary of
State, inaugurated the third study session of the Conference on "The
Religious Factor and the Future of Europe". He spoke in the European
Institute Lecture Hall at the Jagiellonian University. Mr. Lech Kaczyriski,
President of Poland, was present together with other Important political
figures. The following is a translation of the Cardinal's Address.

Thank you for inviting me to inaugurate this study session dedicated to
a theme of special interest, not only for the protagonists of ecclesial
and political life but ultimately for every believer and for all European
citizens.

I cordially greet Cardinal Stanislaw Dziwisz, Archbishop of Krakow, Mr.
Pattering, President of the European Parliament, Bishop Tadeusz Pieronek,
the generous institutions and ecclesial and civil figures who have worked
so hard to promote and animate this Seventh International Conference. The
theme: "The Religious Factor and the Future of Europe" offers you
participants in the Congress who come from various nations the opportunity
to reflect together on European integration and on the contribution it can
make to Christian values through Catholic action.

As I wish you full success in your work, I begin my introductory report
with a quick overview of Europe's current social, cultural and religious
situation.

Religious factor in modern Europe

Deeply marked by two major historical events, the fall of the Berlin
Wall in 1989 and the attack on the Twin Towers in New York in 2001, the
West finds itself living these years in a cultural atmosphere marked by a
widespread, if often vague, quest for the sacred.

This phenomenon concerns Europe in particular. Here, the religious
dimension of life, precipitated into a deep crisis by the massive
anti-religious propaganda in the Eastern countries and by the advance of
secularization which has affected the masses as well as the elite of the
Western European nations, the religious dimension, as I was saying, is
once again attracting increasingly more public interest.

Recent statistics attest to an awakening of faith in God on our
Continent and also of the claim to belong to and identify with the
Christian culture, even if a distinction is made between believing,
belonging and behaving: in other words, between faith, denominational
membership and ethical conduct.

It should immediately be noted that for some people — actually, a
minority — religion takes up too much room in public life: any reference
to the religious factor prompts in such individuals a rejection that is
sometimes as violent, someone wrote, as a red rag to a bull at a
bullfight.

Giving credit to the Catholic Church would for them be equivalent to
"ghettoizing" themselves in an already obsolete institution, as it were,
on its way to extinction.

Thanks to the far-reaching echoes of the mass media, the culture of
secularism is dominant in Europe and some are fighting with every possible
means to have religion viewed merely as a private choice, with no
influence on social life.

At a closer look, however, it seems far from easy to separate the
spiritual requirement from people's consciences and from common sense.

Furthermore, the secularization process is not exempt from obstacles:
if, in fact, it is true that certain forms of the de-institutionalization
of religion (believing without belonging) are spreading in some parts of
Europe, the same is not happening elsewhere.

In the presence of such a complex phenomenon that is marking the
post-modern age in which we live, it is legitimate to ask ourselves
whether the end of a Europe is approaching where the Christian culture and
spirituality are widespread and profound, and whether we should prepare
for the triumph of secularism.

In this regard, you will also be studying at the Convention what
Christian communities can do and in what spirit they should act. The
recurring question is: "Ultimately, what significance and 'supplementary
value' can religion — I am referring in the first place to Christianity —
contribute to building Europe, today and in the future?".

Religion in Poland's recent history

I shall now pause to look at your Nation, marked by the crucial
influence of Christianity and by the action of holy men and women who have
shaped its culture and development. I do not intend to retrace the history
of the Polish People, even if it would be very interesting. I would simply
like to limit myself, dear friends, to recalling that Poland down the
centuries has walked under the constant protection of the Black Madonna,
drawing from her comforting presence the courage and wisdom needed to
overcome difficult and sometimes even dramatic moments.

The Servant of God, beloved Pope John Paul II, for instance, dwelled
emphatically on the brutality of Nazism and Communism, two forms of social
oppression and religious persecution which you have experienced. If Poland
suffered immensely under these two totalitarian regimes — so far apart, so
different from each other and yet in certain aspects so close and similar
—, conversely, it was able to experience deeply the irrepressible power of
Christianity that gave coherence to its people and kept them faithful to
the Gospel.

Indeed, anyone on the side of Christ withstands every attack. Anyone
who loves him feels the need to love human beings and to foster respect
for them and their dignity always; he loves his people, to which he feels
he belongs, and learns to defend as though they were his own "family".

Your experience testifies that only by responding to the yearning for
truth, justice and freedom which is in every person's heart, is it
possible to construct a nation that is truly free and supportive, a
custodian of the human and spiritual values, all of whose members are
reconciled and united within it, a nation open to the great prospects of
peace and integral progress in dialogue with other peoples. How important
is the Church's action here!

In this regard, the Holy Father Benedict XVI wrote in his first
Encyclical Deus Caritas Est: "A just society must be the
achievement of politics, not of the Church. Yet, the promotion of justice
through efforts to bring about openness of mind and will to the demands of
the common good is something which concerns the Church deeply" (n. 28).

It is part of the Church's mission to inculcate in the faithful an
inner freedom that can resist every form of oppression; to awaken and to
nourish in them a love that overcomes hatred and intolerance; to educate
them so that they are able, in every situation, to offer a consistent
witness to the human and spiritual values that constitute every person and
every people.

Inspired by the Christian principles that are quite evident in the
fabric of Poland, those responsible today for your Country's Government
insistently asked the European Union not to be afraid to recognize its
specifically Christian patrimony.

Europe bears an indelible Christian imprint, although today more than
in the past many of its inhabitants belong to other religions because of
the widespread, ongoing phenomenon of immigration. Here too, I am
referring to the coexistence of several religions on the "Old Continent",
a fact that must be properly taken into account.

Religion, safeguard of ethics

I now return to the question I asked at the beginning: what is the
"supplementary value" that Christianity can contribute to building up a
people, to the realization of Europe today and in the future? The Church's
teaching, set out in her social doctrine, is clear and enlightening.

While unambiguously preserving and affirming the fundamental criteria
of justice, disciples of Christ strive to protect these criteria from the
arbitrariness of despotic powers. Keeping alive the passion for truth and
also freedom, as well as the courage to live in accordance with one's
conscience, they make a qualified contribution to ensuring that the truth
does not succumb. In society and in public opinion, they seek to arouse
convictions that can provide firm foundations for civilization on which to
build the legally constituted State and consequently, to ensure peace.

A few years ago, the then Cardinal Ratzinger, today Pope Benedict XVI,
wrote: "Whenever God and the fundamental form of human life outlined by
him are removed from the common mindset and forcefully relegated to the
private, merely subjective sphere, the notion of justice fades as do the
foundations of peace" (Svolta per l'Europa, p. 43).

The State cannot produce any morality on its own; history is scarred by
the tragedies caused by attempts to do this and God does not want them to
be repeated!

Thus, religions, and in primis Christianity, must help create
that common, shared ethos that is indispensable to the very life of
any civil and political community.

Precisely because legality is ultimately rooted in human morality, the
first condition for developing a sense of legality is the presence of a
keen ethical sense, as a fundamental and indispensable dimension of the
person.

To be fully human, the ethical concept must in turn respect the message
that comes from the person's nature, because also inscribed in it is his
"must be". Indeed, natural law is at the same time moral law. When moral law
is in harmony with natural law, the activity of both the individual and
the community respect human dignity and the fundamental rights of the
person and can avoid all forms of exploitation that reduce the person to
being a wretched slave of those who are stronger, as John Paul II wrote in
the Apostolic Exhortation Christifideles Laici (cf. n. 5).

"Those who are stronger", he continued, "can take a variety of names:
an ideology, economic power, political and inhumane systems, scientific
technocracy or the intrusiveness of the mass media" (ibid.).

Therefore, only by respecting precise conditions will the desire for
justice and peace that is in every person's heart find fulfilment, and the
people, from being "subjects" will be able to become true "citizens". With
this in mind, the lesson of Charles Péguy, the French poet, is still
timely: Democracy will either be moral or it will not be democracy.

The Church's commitment

The Church, which received from Christ the mission to evangelize all
peoples, makes her own contribution to solving the many problems that the
human community has to face. She is fully convinced that on the topics of
justice, legality and morality, it is not only peoples' lives and peaceful
coexistence that are at stake but the actual concept of the human person.

John Paul II wanted to refer to this when he said that "authentic
democracy is possible only in a State ruled by law, and on the basis of a
correct conception of the human person" (Encyclical Letter Centesimus
Annus, n. 46).

In societies like ours dominated by the imperative of change, observes
Danièle Hervieu-Léger, a Belgian
sociologist, in which no tradition any longer functions as a "code of
meaning", that is, one imposed upon individuals and groups, the Church
points with her social doctrine to a system of meanings in which the fundamental
human values, rights and duties, also in their consistent historical
development (let us think of citizenship rights), constitute indispensable
reference points for working out rules of personal and social conduct.

Among the priorities emerging in Europe today is the need for the
Church to defend and to promote, recalling an already famous phrase of
Pope Benedict XVI, those non-negotiable values that are associated with
human dignity. By so doing, conscience is taught the indispensable
requirements of truth and hence, of justice.

This is the aim of the Church's frequent interventions to defend human
life from conception to its natural end and the promotion of family
founded on the indissoluble marriage of a man and a woman.

As Pope John Paul II said in Rio de Janeiro on 3 October 1997 on the
occasion of the Second World Meeting of Families, today the fundamental
battle for human dignity is being waged around the family and life. The
constant violations perpetrated against these values make the role of the
Church, often called to compensate for what is lacking in public
institutions, extremely timely, necessary and demanding.

This is certainly an essential but unpopular task. Yet, the Church does
not seek applause and popularity, since she knows that Christ sends her
into the world not "to be served" but rather "to serve". The Church does
not want "to win at any cost", but rather to "convince" or at least "to
warn" the faithful and all people of good will about the risk that the
human being takes on in distancing himself or herself from God.

The history of the last century and all the events in recent months
prompt us to reflect on what kind of society human beings build when they
claim to attain happiness on their own, independently of God. On various
occasions and very frequently, they return to insisting on so-called
modern "values", on individual rights and on the overall vision of society
which contrasts with the ethical, moral and spiritual principles that have
given life to Europe's 1,000-year-old history and tradition, making it a
"beacon of civilization" in the world.

Precisely to put people on guard against the real risk that Europe runs
today of failing in its special vocation in the concert of nations, the
Catholic Church intervenes, making herself the "voice" of those who do not
intend to surrender to the deceptive flattery of ethical relativism and
practical and materialistic atheism, which considers man the absolute
architect of his own destiny.

The constant reference in today's political agenda to modern "rights"
and their importance, often forces Pastors to intervene in this area.

It is not by way of a hobby or because of a mindset closed to a modern
outlook that Pastors of the Church often intervene on recurring moral
issues in Europe's legislative agenda. Rather, they are motivated by the
awareness of their grave duty to defend the dignity and ultimately the
good of the person and of society from manipulation, which can easily be
presented as liberation.

Acting in this way, members of the Church, and especially of the
hierarchy, become more and more aware of the importance of their mission.
They do not fight battles as the rearguard but on the frontline; essential
ethical battles to support the lay faithful involved in social and
political areas.

This is not, therefore, undue interference by the Church in a province
not her own; it is assistance offered to Christians so that they may
develop a conscience that is upright and enlightened, and for this very
reason is freer and more responsible.

Christians involved in politics

I now ask myself what should be the concrete commitment of Christians
in the political arena in Europe today? Can a Christian be satisfied with
stating the ideal and affirming the general principles or must he enter
into history and deal with it in its complexity, encouraging all possible
achievements of Gospel and human values in an organic and coherent
framework of freedom and justice?

It is beyond any doubt that since he is a citizen and a full member of
a people and a nation, the Christian must make himself the "travelling
companion" of those working to make the common good possible.

In particular, every member of the lay faithful is himself responsible
for building the human city with the contribution of his professionalism,
witness and commitment to participation, thereby helping to bring into
being an appropriate legislation and then to set an example by loyally
abiding by it.

In the current cultural debate on the construction of the European
Union, it is necessary to be clear that there are "thresholds" of respect
for human dignity — the thresholds of the above-mentioned "non-negotiable
values" — beneath which one cannot and must not go. Should this happen, a
Christian involved in politics or anyone who puts human dignity at the
centre of his political and social activity would be bound not to support
measures harmful to human dignity in order to avoid effectively imposing
them on it.

In democratic regimes it is right to respect different positions;
however, to make one's own or to support choices and decisions
irreconcilable with human nature is a sign of weakness and a
counter-witness to the actual dignity of the person. Europe is the
"homeland" of values and it would make no sense today to see it relinquish
its rich spiritual heritage which has marked its 1,000 year-old history
and enabled it to forge these values.

In politics it is often necessary to opt for the practical path instead
of the best one; yet, courage is required in order not to set out on every
path merely because it is theoretically possible.

The great Pontiff John Paul II, so attached to the city of Krakow,
noted that the value of democracy stands or falls with the values it
embodies and promotes; on the basis of these values there can be no
temporary or changeable "majority" opinions, but only the recognition of
an objective moral law which, as a "natural law" engraved on the human
heart, is precisely a normative reference for civil law itself (cf.
Evangelium Vitae, n. 70).

I would therefore like to express the Holy See's appreciation for what
the Polish Government declared at the last European Summit, as reported in
the mass media, to safeguard Poland's public morals and norms from
possible interpretations of certain provisions in the Charter of the
Fundamental Rights of the European Union which would violate the
non-negotiable values mentioned above.

Multiculturalism and religious plurality

Before concluding, I cannot refrain from emphasizing that today's
social context in Europe is marked by many different peoples and cultures:
this is a phenomenon that will presumably continue to become increasingly
pronounced. With globalization, in fact, the world has become a "village"
where people increasingly tend to amalgamate.

Now, it should not be forgotten that the encounter becomes a
confrontation when it threatens the fundamental principles of the host's
identity, affecting the ethical and juridical foundations of the ordering
of the State.

The culture of immigrants should undoubtedly be appreciated, but at the
same time, local peoples should not be obliged to relinquish their own
identity. In this regard too, the Church's social doctrine offers useful
suggestions. Indeed, it invites believers to find inspiration in the Most
Holy Trinity, the supreme mystery of Christianity, a mystery of unity and
communion. By allowing themselves to be transformed by Trinitarian love,
Christians learn to be the builders of a society in which difference and
diversity do not lead to divisions and confusion but find harmony in
understanding and solidarity.

Taking up what I have already had the opportunity to note, it is useful
to reaffirm that religion cannot be confined to the private sphere but
must play its own specific and important role in society. It is worth
highlighting that it is precisely the non-European cultures, already
consistently represented in Europe, which help render obsolete the concept
of private religious freedom that was long cultivated by a certain
secularized culture.

For Islam and other religions significantly present today on our
Continent, religion is an essentially public event. Moreover, every
authentic religious tradition desires to show its identity rather than to
hide or camouflage it.

Therefore, if Europe wishes to be healthily secular, it has no other
option than to accept the patrimony of spirituality and humanism of every
religion while at the same time rejecting anything in it that does not
conform with human dignity.

How strange a contradictory attitude appears, supported by some today,
which demands the visibility of the symbols and practices of minority
religions but seeks to abolish and conceal the symbols and practices of
Christianity, the traditional religion of the majority.

Genuine religious freedom alone is a guarantee of peace and a premise
of development in solidarity; this is the only way in which it will be
possible to avoid the feared conflict between civilizations, by weakening
the unfruitful logic of violent confrontation through dialogue.

Conclusion

I would like to conclude by stressing how deeply in tune Christianity
is with certain more salient characteristics of contemporary man. Only
think of the importance attributed today to "desires" and "freedom".

On several occasions in presenting his Gospel, Jesus stressed the
desire for meaning and perfection and not the desire for freedom. Could
not today's European civilization, marked by desires that are often
confused and dissolute and by a spasmodic quest for freedom, find in
Christ the deepest and most satisfying answer to its expectations?

Europe cannot of course be compared with Christianity, nor can
Christianity be reduced to Europe, but it is indisputable that
Christianity'' is no merely one "ingredient" in the European "cocktail".
How, therefore, coup this Continent abandon Christianity like an estranged
travelling companion. How could Europe betray the values forged by
Christianity without the risk of: falling into a dramatic crisis like that
of. someone who rejects his reasons for living and hoping?

Christianity is not first and foremost a collection of truths to
believe and norms to obey: it is a Person, Jesus Christ!, Meeting him and
becoming his friend is what marks our identity as Christians. We ask to be
able to offer to our contemporaries, freely and simply, this proposal of
meaning, of total self-fulfilment: and of civilization.